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Courage taken with both hands firmly grasping the credit card.  There are now three fewer ring-things in stock at DCC supplies which should give me more than enough spares to frustrate myself and turn the air blue once more.  I'll try the needle technique.  One of the Kernow fleet here has also shed a ring so a stock of spares won't go amiss and isn't going to upset the overall packing arrangements for what is by most standards a substantial collection of rolling stock destined for the UK before their next summer.

Years ago I saw some sculptures done inside the eyes of needles and other tiny places. The chap trained himself to control his own heartbeat so he could work between beats. I remember his efforts when I get fiddly small things. I did prepare by clearing and cleaning the bench and some other gentle and easy tasks to try to get myself as relaxed as possible. The engine is nice and heavy so at least it stays put during assembly. Hope this helps.

Richard.

I held the eyelets with a sewing needle (the taper grips the inside of the hole), cut from the sprue and fixed with Mek Pak, a really tiny drop. The solvent needs to be drawn into the joint and not run on the surface because it will stain the painted finish. I did the lot this way, got one tiny mark and no losses. The important thing is use a needle, not a pin because a pin has a cylindrical shape and you need the taper to grip. The needle gives you a handle for the eyelet. Good luck all the same :-)

 

Richard.

We sat down at the end of the show at Broxbourn (which was incidentally a very good show) and I showed her an old Trix wagon I'd bought, one of the "whiskey hoppers".

 

"What are you going to do with that?"

 

"I want to cut it across here and here to make it one bay shorter. Glue it back together and then cut it across here to make it one ladder rung lower. Glue on the side panels to hide most of the joints. Then put the body on a spare Lima chassis, the one from their brake van"

 

"Why don't you buy what you want?"

 

Then a quiet period.

 

- Richard.

That's a fine job on the repaint.

 

steve

All of the credit for the repaint goes to Andi. I will own up to highlighting the edges of the cab steps in yellow and adding a little paint to the faces of the wheels, but that is all. I'm sure I'll use Andi again.

 

Richard.

...

 

It strikes me as odd that specific TRAM speed limits, are apparently in KMH, yet the normal road sign speed limits in MPH.

 

That raises the obvious question, why doesn't Britain have one system of identifying speed limits and not BOTH? Yes, MPH is traditional, but why is the tram line different? After all tram drivers have to navigate both types of speed signs, on reserved tracks & public roads.

In Britain, the Highway Code UK Government book 'Know Your Traffic Signs' explains the speed limit signs for trams (black figures on white diamonds):

Speed limit sign for tram drivers shown in kilometres per hour. All diamond-shaped signs are for tram drivers only

 

I cannot find an example in Google Street View (no trams near home to look at) but maybe someone can confirm, trams have their own speed limit signs throughout, including their street sections?

 

- Richard. 

 

Edit for correctness.

Having slept on this, I think the validity of the word ‘accident’ depends a lot on your point of view of an incident.

 

It is reasonable for the press to call it a crash, because this is visibly true, and it helps the reader to comprehend the event much better than ‘derailment’ (which could be quite a minor thing) or ‘incident’ (which tells you nothing). It also helps the press to seem independent, because if they call it an ‘accident’ straight away it looks a bit conclusive.

 

Further ahead, the coroner might return verdicts of accidental death or unlawful killing (or something else), and a court will return a verdict of its own … but the railway can quite reasonably call the event an accident from the outset. Because, from the point of view of the railway, it will always be an accident.

 

And as for the title of this thread … well, I think a lot of us see ourselves as railway operators in miniature, or at least as having a viewpoint closer to that of a railway operator than many other people … and we will call it an accident too.

 

So I hope this helps and doesn't create more arguments.

 

- Richard.

I am sure, if someone flew a plane into Clapham Junction, the railway part of the event would be passed to the RAIB. For the railway, it would be an accident - solved. No problem.

 

And if the plane was flown by an employee of the railway, the result would be just the same.

 

Richard.

I think you will find 'Accident' is the generic term for this type of event, be it accidental or not. Because of this not using the generic term is judgemental, as it it implies that it might not be an accident!

I take your point, and indeed the UK Government body which investigates incidents is called the Rail Accident Investigation Branch.

 

I am troubled about one particular possible root cause, and this made me look up 'accident' in a dictionary.

 

- Richard.

The headline on the BBC at the moment is,

Croydon tram crash: Driver was 'three times over speed limit'

 

We know the event behind this topic was a crash, but we don't know whether it was an accident. Therefore could the OP or the moderators consider amending the topic title from "Croydon Tram Accident" to something less judgemental.

 

- Richard.

The repaint into '66 747' is now done and I've posted some pics on my blog entry for the engine.

 

- Richard.

Gordon -

 

I have ordered up a large oval of Kato H0 track ... I enjoyed watching my N gauge trains in prolonged motion and I want to try the same for my 16.5 mm gauge stuff. Maybe you could build Eastwood Town (station) to begin with, and put up with Kato for the main line as a temporary measure. Then you could run trains and have a constructional project at the outset.

 

- Richard.

In Heybridge (Essex) yesterday.

 

- Richard.

 

Taking these photos this morning I remembered how awkward Hatfield Peverel is to get a decent picture - there are lamp posts, cameras, screens and clutter everywhere. Also, the sun was in exactly the wrong place.

 

 

The first shots were around 9am. The class 66 had idled all night to keep the life support things like heating running ... this was the coldest night of this Autumn.

 

About an hour later, the train had divided into its two sections, with the power plant (called the 'D75') nearest the class 66:

 

The train has renewed about 800 metres of the Down line, from near the Ter viaduct to the station, and today it is working on the Up line to the north of the station. The train is stabled at Parkinston, and although self-propelled, it weighs up to 3,000 tonnes when loaded up. The class 66 helps it up the gradient from Manningtree to Mistley.

 

I doubt I'll ever see it so close again so I hope these are of interest.

 

- Richard.

I saw the track layer just near Boreham on Saturday alongside the A12 as I was headed back from John Dutfields. It was in cutting so you couldn't see if any loco's were attached.

 

The track laying train returned to Hatfield Peverel yesterday evening (Saturday 5th Nov) with 66548 attending. I'm told, the train is self-propelled but it is not powerful enough to haul the loco as well.

 

The train is in platform 1 at the moment and the crew arrived around 9am to set it up. It will be working by 10am or so and it is quite a spectacle to see in operation.

 

- Richard.

I don't know how long the whole train is, I'll guess around 1400 feet (two platform lengths). It seemed to be self-powered (the trailing vehicle), but I didn't see the front.

 

There is a write-up of the track-laying train here:

http://www.railtechnologymagazine.com/Rail-News/network-rail-to-bring-high-output-track-renewals-in-house

 

My guess of the length was about 50% undersize (about right for a railway modeller!) - it's nearer to 800 metres in all. It is quite a spectacle.

 

- Richard.

Slightly shocked to see this thread has been quiet since last year - time goes too quickly.

 

A very long track maintenance train visited Hatfield Peverel yesterday (Sunday) evening. The work has laid some new sleepers on the down line, just beyond the bridge on the Terling road ... I am told there is a natural spring near here so perhaps this has been causing trouble.

 

This is a train on a train. There are link spans between the vehicles and a powered truck runs along to fetch and carry sleepers.

 

I don't know how long the whole train is, I'll guess around 1400 feet (two platform lengths). It seemed to be self-powered (the trailing vehicle), but I didn't see the front.

 

The evidence of the work today is two short lengths of rail with bolted joints:

 

I still want a model of a 312, but then again a model of this train would be pretty fabulous :-)

 

- Richard.

I think that patience is all that you need.

 

In my experience birds are very wary of anything new appearing. I bought a suet block feeder in dark green plastic and hung that up in place of one of the fat ball feeders which had been there for years and had been very popular. 

 

However, despite adding a brand spanking new suet block inside the feeder, it was ignored for almost a week even though the birds carried on using the other offerings. Now, they have become used to it, it has become the most popular and keeping it filled costs me a fortune.

 

After a few weeks absence I have noticed members of the tit family beginning to return to the garden since the nights became colder. I have had representatives from four members of the wider family - blue, great, coal, and long tailed - over the past week, which is encouraging.

Yes, my robin came back at the weekend :-).

It hopped around the lawn and seemed to be finding something - I guess either bits of soil from my shoes or something fallen from the trees above. Any way, it was good to see some life returning to the patch.

 

- Richard.

I am so glad to read about other people's visitors. I laid an artificial lawn last week, it's small (about 9 square metres) but the birds have vanished. The only ones at the moment are the pigeons scrambling around on the roof of my outbuilding. Which makes quite a din when I am sitting underneath. I've got some soil improver to dig into the new flower bed, perhaps some activity here will bring them back.

 

- Richard.

I bought one because it looks adaptable. The wheelbase is 21 + 24 mm, the wheels are 14 mm diameter. So there should be uses in H0 and 00. The motor is wholly within the side tanks so there is an easy entry into 0-16.5 by removing the cab and adding a suitable driver figure and perhaps a taller chimney. The drive is to the leading axle so it might reduce to an 0-4-2.

 

I've seen a similar model where the owner removed the outside valve gear and changed the shape of the cab and made quite a convincing British H0 loco, but unfortunately I cannot remember the prototype.

 

There is a topic here (70+ replies) and also a topic on similar models here but unfortunately the pictures have been lost.

 

- Richard.

Not wishing to digress too far from the physics, but I think I've found an out-take from the Rapido video.

 

- Richard.

This made me chuckle...

 

smoke-bot.jpg

Doesn't this belong with the APT-E topic?

 

- Richard.

I wasn't involved in the development of these models so I don't have the inside info on what decisions were made and why. I did supply a number of photos of USATC locos to the research and they were all different, with different styles of lettering etc. It is likely that the explanation for the lack of steps is for one of two reasons: 

1 They weren't on the locomotive in the photo that we worked from.

2 They required an extra tool for two small steps that were only going to be used on one of the examples and it was therefore decided that it was not viable to tool them up. 

I suspect that reason number one is the most likely but I haven't yet received any research material back, so I can't check. 

(CJL)

 

In the KRP book 'Southern USA Tanks', there are some photos of locos which were sent to Middle East . Appendix E, and both photos show locos without front steps and no hand rail. It would make sence to have the handrails if there were steps. the photo at Newbury has loco without handrails and steps. Photos of locos at Longmoor also show no handrails, and as far as I can tell no steps. As to why some had steps and handrails , can not explain. From the evidence, I would say the one produced, 1968, did not have front steps , as there are no handrails. One without the other does not make sense.

I would hope that the interest in these locos results in a new book about the locos, and all the variations, including the ones built after the war.

 

The photo of the NCB version on the Model Rail website shows front hand rails and the steps, and I would like to agree they would surely go together. I'd like to wait until I can find some more UK prototype photos before I decide to alter my Rivarossi (H0) model to match my MR/Bachmann MR-101 model (I want to see the cab roof too) but a new book would be great. Here is a shot of WD 1264, with a front step nearest to the camera, additional "loop" steps each side and no front handrails.

 

Chris - I've added three replies to your comments on my blog post, and also sent you a PM to try to clarify why I like the MR model for what it is - I have no desire to be seen to be unfair to the MR model. The comments on the blog may be of interest to the people who made the first 250-ish views, I've never had a blog post with so many hits so quickly. My MR model is certainly as good as many other Bachmann models I have (all small diesels as in happens), and it's running a whole lot better since I reset the quartering.

 

- Richard.

 

Edits in italics and underlined.

Both those pictures seem to show the standard 'original' footsteps - though I don't know whether ALL locos had them when built ( possibly only one or two of the builders ) ........... all working locos shown in the KRB book ( apart from the Southernised ones ) appear to have them - though "Frank S Ross" looks to have lost them at some time. [ Could it be that the locos were shipped from the U.S. without vulnerable steps and that they were in the bunker with all the rods - and who knows what else - when stored at Newbury ? ]

Goodness only knows. The engines used in Europe passed through the UK, and the H0 models from Rivarossi, REE and Alexander Models have these front steps. The steps appear in photos of engines working in Europe too. Photos of the Fulgurex model show a single step.

 

I think we have got to allow Model Rail / Bachmann a little license because they have tackled so many variants of the original locos. For example, their model of 1968 has the British regulator (as later fitted by the Southern railway), not the American push-pull design fitted to the original locomotives. We really need to find a photo of "1968" in use before the SR modified it. I have copies of the Railway Magazine and trawled through 1943 to 1948 and found not one photo of any S100.

 

- Richard.

I missed the delivery yesterday but I'm delighted to have mine; it's a superb little model and I'll stick my neck out and say I feel it's the best produced OO RTR steam loco I've seen.

My model of USATC '1968' has arrived and I've put a review of it against the Rivarossi model on my blog. I hope this is useful to people. I think the Bachmann product is fair, but the Hornby B12 is still the best RTR 00 steam loco I've seen.

 

- Richard.

A couple of shots of Loch Tummel, October 2012. The road takes you on (eventually) to Rannoch station, a nice drive. Very remote for the last 20 miles of so - must be one of the longest cul-de-sacs I've explored.

 

- Richard.